The Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris is the largest library in France, and there are only a few libraries in the world that can match its collection. The National Library has a history of more than 500 years, its earliest predecessor was the King's Library established during the reign of Charles V, and in the early 16th century, it underwent a large-scale renovation and expansion, and is still in use today, divided into the Library of Richelieu, the Library of Mitterrand, and the Library of Asna.
The bibliothèque national de France has an extremely rich collection and is a treasure trove of human cultural heritage. The library contains more than 10 million volumes, more than 12 million pictures and photographs, 1.7 million sheet music scores, and millions of manuscripts, periodicals, maps, audio recordings, and more.
The National Library also has a distinctive feature, with a collection of more than 500,000 pieces of various cultural relics and antiques, which is completely comparable to ordinary museums. Due to the long history of the museum, the time span and source of the cultural relics in the collection are extremely complex, and almost all the cultural relics of all continents in the world can be found in it.
During the Guangxu period at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the French explorer, archaeologist and cultural relics thief Bo Xihe infiltrated the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, bribed the caretaker of the Mogao Grottoes with heavy money, Wang Yuanzhu, and stole more than 6,600 volumes of ancient documents and classics from the Dunhuang Tibetan Scripture Cave, known in history as the "Dunhuang Testament". Bo Xihe, a historian who was well versed in sinology, knew that these relics were priceless, and around 1909, he shipped these relics to Paris, France, and a large part of them eventually became collected by the National Library of France.
In the 1920s, he was a famous scholar. Historian Chen Yinke traveled to Paris. When he consulted the materials in the National Library, he accidentally found Bo Xi and the Dunhuang suicide notes stolen from China. Chen Yinke was immediately keenly aware of the great value contained in this batch of ancient documents and conducted a fruitful study on it.
In this batch of documents, Chen Yinke accidentally found a manuscript of the Tang Dynasty epitaph "Chang He Tombstone". Chang He, the founding hero of the Tang Dynasty, was a military general who was active in the official field during the years of Wu De and Zhenguan, and personally experienced many major historical events in the early days of the tang dynasty. However, due to the lack of historical records, people only know a little about the life and deeds of this Tang Dynasty military general, and they do not know much.
But the discovery of "Chang He Tombstone" has solved this problem. The writing convention of the Tang Dynasty epitaph will provide a detailed review and summary of the tomb owner's life experience. The same is true of Chang He's Tombstone, which allows people to understand the many major historical events in which Chang He participated in his lifetime. In the change of Xuanwumen that affected the Tang Dynasty, there was also a figure of Chang He.
It is mentioned that Chang He has won the trust and respect of Li Shimin and is Li Shimin's confidant. As early as the seventh year of Wu De, two years before the outbreak of the Xuanwumen Rebellion, Li Shimin made an important transfer to Chang He's work: "Pursuing The order of Emperor Taizong to beijing, he gave a golden knife, and the gold was thirty-strong, so that Yu Beimen led Jian Er to grow up, and still entrusted Gong Xi Xiaoyong's husband with dozens of golden knives."
Li Shimin transferred Chang He from other places to the capital and made him the chief general of the Xuanwu Gate of the North Gate of the Imperial Palace. Intriguingly, Li Shimin also gave Chang He an extremely rich bounty, "a golden knife, thirty thousand gold." At the same time, what is even more surprising is that Li Shimin also gave Chang He another bounty, allowing him to secretly cultivate and buy a group of henchmen warriors. The Tombstone of Chang He also mentions that "on June 4, 1999, the North Gate of the Ling Commandery was sent." On the day of the change of Xuanwu Gate, Li Shimin specially arranged for Chang He to be on duty to guard Xuanwu Gate.
From these accounts of "Chang He Tombstone", the sinister side of Li Shimin's personality is highlighted. In the historical records, the crown prince Jiancheng tried every means to exclude and frame Li Shimin, and Li Shimin was forced to launch the Xuanwumen Rebellion as a last resort. However, the "Tombstone of Chang He" overturned this statement, Li Shimin had long planned to launch an armed mutiny to kill his brother Li Jiancheng, and even two years before the Xuanwumen Rebellion, he began to use means such as arranging for his confidants to go to key posts and bribing the dead with heavy money. The insidiousness of its intentions, the ugliness of human nature in the struggle for imperial power, is still chilling thousands of years later.
Reference: Chang He's Tombstone